Tompkins Square Park Riot

As a rookie cop in 1988 I remember how burnt out the city was. Whole sections of the Bronx,Brooklyn, and lower East Side of Manhattan abandoned and in ruin. But unbeknownst to myself and surely many others, the city would have a rebirth coming, after the election of Rudy Giuliani and the implementation of pro-active policing and fiscally conservative policies. The lower East Side of Manhattan would change first, it was already starting in the late 80's.The area attracted punks, druggies, artists, and the homeless. It was a unique scene. Many started to take over abandoned city buildings and made some repairs in a sort of warped homesteading ideology. It was called "squatting". The city at the time was the biggest landlord, the unfortunate owner of abandoned buildings throughout the 5 boroughs.

On East Fifth Street between C and D. Rose was standing near Fourth Street

East Second Street where it merges with Houston between Avenue C and Avenue D

The homeless were a big issue in NYC at the time. There had been mass closing of mental hospitals and they made up a decent percentage of the homeless population. They would take over a public city park and playground, called Tompkins Square Park, and make it a homeless tent city. The park reeked of human waste and crack cocaine was a common site. Residents of the area were afraid to use the park. Children could no longer safely use the playground. This went on for some time.

It would become ground zero in the fight against gentrification, the defense of squatting and for protesting against the rise in real estate values. We would be mobilized to remove squatters from unsafe vacant buildings and to secure them afterwards. Sometimes these evictions would be endlessly delayed by court orders from activist attorneys Kunstler & Kuby.

The Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1988began on August 6 and carried over into the wee hours of August 7. The East Village park had been overrun by drug dealers, the homeless, and reckless youth, but the neighborhood could not reach an agreement about what--if anything--could be done. Manhattan Community Board No. 3 decided to adopt a 1 a.m. curfew for the park (it was previously open 24 hours). The trouble officially began with a July 31 curfew protest that resulted in a confrontation between demonstrators and police.

​On August 6, a second rally took place, but this time the park became a battlefield. Around 11:30 p.m., protesters entered the park holding signs that read "Gentrification is Class War." Police claim there were as many as 700 people present. By the time the morning came, 38 people--including police and reporters--had been injured. Nine people were arrested, and six cases of police brutality were filed. Though the NYPD claimed that officers did not provoke the incident, several witnesses, including poet and resident Allen Ginsberg, said that they charged the crowd. Captain Gerald McNamara of the 9th Precinct claimed that police only charged the crowd after bottles were thrown at them. (I observed numerous incidents of "pig baiting" while at other skirmishes at the park. There were people there looking to stat a confrontation with the NYPD and as Ed Koch stated, "If you take on a cop it's at your own peril". Underground newspapers like "The Shadow" would post pictures of undercover officers and their vehicles at the time)

​The number of complaints eventually swelled to over 100, and images and video footage of officers beating protesters and other defenseless people with nightsticks made national headlines. New York Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward blamed the precinct for the incident and promptly announced the retirement of Deputy Chief Thomas J. Darcy, who was not present at the scene. The city reviewed the incident and found numerous flaws in the NYPD's actions, including a failure to contact Commissioner Ward or Mayor Koch.

Tompkins Square 30th Annual Riot ReunionOne August night in 1988, hundreds of police officers enforcing a 1am curfew in Tompkins Square Park clashed with protesters, punks and other citizens, resulting in 44 injuries and more than 120 police brutality complaints. Since 2004, local punks have staged annual concerts in the park marking the event, with cult faves Leftöver Crack headlining the inaugural and several subsequent events. This year's concert has several NYC hardcore bands lined up, including Breakdown and Urban Waste, as well as suitably loud acts Disassociate, The F.U.’s, Psycho Sin and others, plus a“special guest band to be announced."